Purpose of Crisis Stabalization

After reading this weeks chapter on "The Audience" I struggled to come up with a topic regarding conflict.   I wanted to discuss something related to my new position and what I have been learning. I then remembered how I spent an afternoon at our crisis stabilization services unit, which is a 23 hour inpatient facility monitoring the clients safety.  I remembered a conversation I had with the nurse working at the Crisis stabilization unit and how she was explaining how she often had to make "judgement calls" on who to admit into the facility.  She asked me to look through the files of repeat clients to develop my own opinion of people who utilizes the unit.  She mentioned how most everyone needed to be cleared through the hospital with lab work.  She stated it is much easier to admit someone with clear undeniable mental health diagnosis than it is to admit and monitor a client coming down off meth or detoxing from alcohol.  She was doing a good job describing how there is a need for both and remaining politically correct with how we treat clients fairly in regards to needed services.

I looked through the files to discover the purpose of the crisis stabilization and how it is used in our community. I came to the conclusion that more people are utilizing the crisis unit with confirmed positive drug tests and other circumstances, such as being displaced.  The unit was created for clients with mental illness suffering a crisis and not for people coming down from drugs/alcohol or having housing issues.  What seems most complicated is people coming off drugs are experiencing a crisis just the same as someone suffering a crisis related to mental illness.  My question is do we utilize the same resources for both?  What happens if a bed is unavailable for a client with known mental illness? Can we explain to the patient after the crisis about their choices and consequences of using and possibly referring to a rehabilitation program tailored to their needs?  Overall, I am not sure what the right answer is but it is getting more complicated with dual diagnosis of mental illness and DOA dependency issues. I also think emergency rooms don't know what to do with them and it becomes an issue about money.